Pros and Cons
by CrystallicSky
Summary: Clearly, it was time for Jack to do what he always did when faced with a conundrum like this: go through it logically and write out all the benefits and drawbacks. CHACK, ONESHOT, FLUFF-WARNING


**Pros and Cons  
**

**By: CrystallicSky**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown or any of its characters, nor do I make any profit or attempt to with the writing of this or any of my other pieces.**

Warnings: Sexual implications, homosexuality, etc.

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A redheaded Evil genius sat at his work desk, tapping his fingers in consternation, not so unusual as he'd just gotten off the phone with his mother.

A lot of things had happened to Jack Spicer in the two or three years since he had been a green and bumbling boy, namely that he was more of a _man,_ now. With his manhood had come maturity, and with maturity had come a sudden stream of victories in Showdowns. The pitfalls of insecurity and the tendency to betray allies at the drop of a hat had dissipated, and with the lack of them came the ability to actually _win_ every once in awhile.

After that came the best part, as far as Jack was concerned: acceptance by other Heylin, particularly that of his longtime idol, Chase Young.

It had begun as a 'master-apprentice' sort of relationship, but of course, that couldn't last; not with the albino's _deep_ infatuation for the other man. Over the course of a year, 'master-apprentice' became 'master-_consort,'_ an arrangement that both found perfectly acceptable.

In fact, as of late, Chase had even been speaking vaguely of a way in which to make Jack immortal alongside him, a revelation that the genius knew to be sheerly _groundbreaking._

Excited, the goth had wanted nothing more than to gush to someone about it, the only problem being that he had no one to gush _to._

Jack was not a genius for nothing, however, and, upon consideration, realized that there _was_ another person on the planet besides the man he was in love with that would actually listen to a word he said, and that happened to be his mother.

He had been keeping in touch with her after he'd moved in with Chase, of course, but he hadn't exactly told her about _Chase._ As far as Mrs. Spicer knew, her son had simply moved out of the house at eighteen and gotten settled into an independent life.

The goth had kept up communication fairly regularly and called the woman at least once a month to keep her from worrying, and it was in these phone calls that he'd at last admitted to her that he was gay.

Naturally, he had no want to overwhelm his poor mother and tell her he was actually _with_ another man just yet, but at the very least, he had successfully outed his homosexuality with no real backlash.

He could gush to his mother, Jack had thought as he began dialing the number on his custom-built cell phone. She'd be happy for him and gush too, right?

Wrong, apparently, the genius petulantly thought, glaring at the now closed phone.

At first, Mrs. Spicer _had_ been happy when her son told her he'd met someone and was considering asking him out (not the truth, but he had to start slow in breaking this to her). That happiness had faded entirely when Jack had told her about the man in question.

Her bright, cheerful tone grew more apprehensive and worried with each word her child spoke of the one with whom he was smitten, and finally, by the end of the phone call, she had vocalized her disapproval.

"He sounds awfully controlling, Jackie," she'd said. "I don't think you should get involved with him."

Naturally, Jack had balked. Controlling? Chase? No, he wasn't like that. He was great! He wasn't _anything_ like those wife-beaters you'd seen getting arrested on the news for bullying their partner!

This viewpoint served as a source of contention for mother and son, and the phone call had ended in argument, with Jack slamming the phone shut and turning it off so the woman couldn't call back.

Chase, controlling; ridiculous! What'd _she_ know?

…and then, the thoughts started.

What if mom was right? Obviously, Chase was no white-trash wife-beater: he'd _never_ struck Jack outside of the martial arts training they did, and even then, barely hard enough to bruise (the albino bruised easily; a _tap_ would leave a mark, albeit a pale and painless one).

Still…Jack saw where Chase could be seen as maybe…a _little_ manipulative…

The dragonlord quite largely managed his consort's days into a rather strict schedule, monopolizing certain blocks of time for all sorts of training and leaving a relatively small window for free time throughout the day; sometimes even cutting into that with spontaneous sex.

Chase did not like unplanned events _unless_ they were sex, and quite blatantly frowned upon Jack doing activities that were unscheduled or were hastily thrown _into_ the schedule.

And besides that…when it came to the goth's decision-making, he realized that Chase did a good deal of it _for_ him. What to eat, what to build next, (as previously stated) how to spend his free time…

Jack realized with a start that when he occasionally bounced ideas off of Chase at the dinner table, he would immediately drop anything that the everlord even minutely disapproved of, signified by a verbal denial or a visual cue such as a sneer or a frown.

Maybe…maybe Chase _was_ a little controlling, after all!

Well, Jack thought to himself, nibbling contemplatively on the cap of the pen in his hand, _that_ couldn't be right… Chase was _awesome,_ and Jack had never _felt_ like some subdued little woman cringing under the oppressive control of her bigger and more intimidating spouse.

He'd never _felt_ controlled; not until he thought about it, at least.

It _had_ to be an isolated incident, the genius decided. Sure, in this one area, the man had the flaw of restricting his behavior and activities every now and then, but there had to be _way_ more things about him that were positive…right?

Jack silently shook his head of the muddled thoughts and bent in his chair, pulling open a drawer and removing a sheet of paper.

Clearly, it was time to do what he always did when faced with a conundrum like this: go through it logically and write out all the benefits and drawbacks.

Removing the slightly-chewed cap of the pen, he quickly printed out the words, 'Staying with Chase' at the top of the paper, then drawing a line straight through the middle of the sheet and labeling each side as 'Pros' and 'Cons.'

The albino's pale, ungloved hand grasped the writing utensil with long fingers, and for a solid half-hour or so, Jack scrawled bullet points and notes upon the page in his somewhat scribbled handwriting as he thought of his lover and of how the dragonlord had treated him since officially taking him as a consort; so _certain_ that at the end, he would remember his justification of remaining in Chase's keeping.

When he could no longer think of anything to write for either side, Jack lay down his pen, idly rolling his wrist to loosen the tension that'd built from the writing as he plucked the piece of paper up with his other hand and looked at his chart as a whole.

The finished version almost had his jaw dropping at the _severe_ imbalance between the sides.

Under 'Pros', there was a grand total of three listed items: 'love him,' 'great sex,' 'on the verge of committed relationship, kinda.'

'Cons' had a decidedly larger following: 'bossy,' 'short-tempered,' 'generally impatient,' 'moody,' 'hard to read,' 'could easily beat me up,' 'no guarantee that he'd never get bored/rid of me,' 'could kill me in a matter of seconds at _any_ second.'

Jack gaped at the list for a few moments longer.

How could that _be?!_ his mind boggled. Chase was…he wasn't…there was no _way…_

If he went by this list, his mother was right: he _never_ should've gotten involved with his current lover.

But no…_that_ wasn't right. Jack _couldn't_ just go by this list. I mean, yeah, _logically_ he shouldn't be with Chase, but…

Matters like this weren't necessarily tied to logic. He _loved_ Chase, so while that was only one bullet point on the list, it easily had the weight of, like, _five_ bullet points, which put the 'Pros' at pretty much the same places as the 'Cons,' despite the latter's numbers. Factor in the amazing sex, and the 'Pros,' despite technically 'losing' 3:8, won out.

Besides, Jack thought, folding the list in half and stashing it away in his desk drawer, it'd be stupid to break up with Chase just because of a stupid little list, no matter _what_ his mom said about the whole thing!

The gothic genius stood from his desk and left the lab altogether, opting instead to go upstairs and get dressed for dinner. He _had,_ after all, been meaning to talk to Chase about this idea for a wrist-mounted flamethrower he'd had…

Dinner came and went normally, as it always did, though the warlord had seemed a mite…_touchy,_ Jack supposed. The man was quieter than usual, and when spoken to, he replied in the sharpness of tone that he usually reserved for when his albino consort did something _particularly_ stupid.

Briefly, of course, the genius had considered Chase knew about the list, but that was ridiculous. He would've said something if he had found out, and even then, Jack had _vetoed_ the idea of separating from the everlord over a simple amalgamation of facts!

Who knew? Perhaps the older man was merely upset over the monks doing something thuggish and idiotic (again), or Wuya might've stopped by earlier trying to seduce him _(again)._

Either way, it was dismissed and not thought of again…

…at least not until an hour or so before bedtime, that is.

Jack was starting to get tired, the clock reading 11:30 PM, and had gone back down to his lab to clean up whatever mess yet lingered there to offend his near-obsessive tidy sensibilities.

It was then that he'd found the list again, unfolded and on top of his work desk.

Given pause, _certain_ that he'd not only folded it, but placed it inside of a locked drawer, the albino wandered over to it and plucked the thing from the metal tabletop.

It took only a few seconds to realize that the list had been tampered with.

Suddenly, the 'Pros' side had quite a few more things going for it, written in a pretty and elegant script that contrasted with Jack's somewhat sloppy handwriting.

'Protects you' was the first new addition onto the left side of the page, followed up with, 'instructs you in Evil,' and 'prevents you from using your big mouth to get into trouble.'

Then began a series of bullet points that seemed to directly correlate with some of the 'Cons.'

In response to 'bossy,' the words, 'to make you improve' had been added. To 'short-tempered' was added, 'due to frustration at any sign of a backslide in your progress.' 'Generally impatient' now had the qualifier, 'for you to grow up,' and 'moody' had 'because of some 1,500 years of relative isolation.' 'Hard to read' was even responded to with, 'but open books are no fun at all, are they?'

'Could easily beat me up' was met with, 'I would never,' and to 'no guarantee that he'd never get bored/rid of me,' was promised, 'even _less_ likely than a beating.'

The final 'Con,' too, 'could kill me in a matter of seconds at _any_ second' had been responded to with, 'despite the temptation at times, I could never end you.'

Red eyes followed an arrow that led from this last comeback back over to the 'Pros' side, where a simple bullet point was emblazoned upon the bottom of the page in that lovely, flowing handwriting that had Jack's mind entirely blank and his expression akin to that of a fish out of water.

'He loves you,' it said simply.

Before the goth could truly process it, a pair of powerful arms quite abruptly slipped around him, pinning his arms to his chest and pulling his back up against a firm, broad chest.

The hold had all the warmth of a hug and all the strength of someone desperate not to let go. A mouth made itself known beside the albino's ear, inquiring in a smooth voice that'd always made the teen's insides liquefy, "Still considering 'breaking up with me,' Spicer?"

Jack smiled despite himself and managed to loosen the embrace just enough to about-face, putting himself in proper position to share the warm, sappy smile with his master and lover. Reaching up ever so slightly, he locked lips with the man in a chaste and affectionate kiss that almost seemed to surprise the everlord.

"Not a chance," Jack promised sincerely upon pulling away, truth in his statement and love in his eyes.

**--**

A/N: Not really sure where this one came from, actually. It didn't quite come to me in a dream, but it _did_ come to me in that hazy, barely awake period after you've woken up and realized you're not getting back to sleep, but refuse to get out of bed or open your eyes just yet.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope you like the fic! :D


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